October 15, 2005 - Wauchula, FL
While in NH visiting Barb's family, we got a call from the volunteer coordinator for the Caloosahatche Regional Park. Seems she'd received our application for work from the Army Corps of Engineers. We'd applied with the Corps because we liked the W.P.Franklin Locks when we visited it a couple of years ago. We had no idea what the Caloosahatche Regional Park setting was like, so we stipulated that in order for us to be there, we'd need to have a clear view of the southern sky so we could have internet and TV reception with our satellite dishes. The coordinator assured us it would be no problem, and we didn't need to worry about it at all. Well, that set my alarms off immediately because we've been to lots of FL parks and there are trees in most of them. And she'd be mailing some forms to us that we needed to fill out and send back. Well, when the forms didn't come and our time was up, we left NH and headed to FL because she was anxious for us to start as a campground host as soon as we could get there.
After driving several long days and a stopover in Norfolk to visit with Eric and Martha, we arrived in Clermont, FL, and called to see what was going on and to give them our new mailing address. While it surprised us they'd never heard of "General Delivery" before, we sort of let it go, but realized we were dealing with some people who were probably a lot younger than we were. After a week and no forms, I got real nervous about the whole deal. There was another TTN (Thousand Trails Naco) park about 1/2 way between the park we were in at Clermont and the town of Alva where the park is located, and the decision was made to high-tail it down and check things out personally. Good thing we did as, sure enough, the tree canopy was so thick there was no way we could get a decent signal. So back to square one.
We then went to the W. P. Franklin Locks where we talked to the ranger we'd been in touch with on the phone. He was kind enough to tell us to call the ranger in charge at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Did you know there were two 6:30's in a day? We'd almost forgotten. Got lazy the last few months, and don't get up until 7 or so. Anyway, next day we called Ranger Schnell who told us that he had all the volunteers he needed, but we should call Lovers Key to see how they were doing.
A call to Maria at Lovers Key State Park and WHOOPEE!! She'd just had a cancellation. We start "work" on Monday, and have been told we can stay until the end of December. What a wonderful turn of events. We feel very blessed. We love barrier islands, and the chance to live on one for a couple of months is real exciting to us. We'll share from there, you betcha.
Yeah, I'm going on a diet. So what! Actually, I wanted you to be able to see what the Uniform Of The Day is for hooking up the utilities in the rain in Florida in October. Rubber shoes and a swimsuit. The rubber shoes are because I didn't yet know where the fire ant nests were. Fun to be in warm rain. And then Barb wanted to see me put a lizard to sleep. I'd told her that if you rub the belly of one, it'll go to sleep for you. Only this little guy hadn't heard the story, and all he wanted to do was bite me again. Eventually I gave up and he scampered off with one whopping tale to tell his grandkids.
We love the wildlife in Florida. It's all over the place at all times of every day it seems. That's not entirely true of course, but that's the impression we get. Nice young red shouldered hawk looking for lunch, and then the day we were leaving Clermont Barb spotted this gopher tortoise. He'd been following a smaller one and bobbing his head up and down quickly. We'd never seen that sort of activity before and guessed he was feeling romantic. The smaller one ducked down this hole, and I carefully grabbed this shot of the larger one before it went into the hole as well.
Not much loving going on in that hole unless there's a nice big room in there someplace. This guy pretty much filled the passageway up all by himself. And that's our site there in the Clermont TTN park. Nice little lake/pond just the other side of the street from us, but except for a bunch of birds, we didn't see much wildlife. Like the alligators we love to watch.
This is what home looks like at the moment. Lots of grass, lots of space. The Peace River (thus the name, Peace River TTN) is just beyond those trees, and home to "Stumpy," a 3-legged alligator. Couldn't tell if this was Stumpy or not, as shortly after I took this shot it went underwater. It was in the location we'd been told to look for him, and based on the size, it well might be. That debris on the riverbank is some of the residue from Charlie, which, in August 2004, whupped this area pretty bad.
Upriver and downriver from where we're parked. The morning I took these pictures we scared up a whole lot of birds unexpectedly. Surprised us because we didn't see them all because of the brush. Great Egrets, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egrets, a Stork, Glossy Ibis and some others I can't remember. They were all around this small pond up on the riverbank. Great fun, but no pictures.
This is the Nature Trail that goes from one end of the park to the other, following the river. No snakes yet, but we hear they're here.
Those gray posts are the electrical hookups for the RV's that back in, right on the river bank, and then plenty of room for more throughout the park. Plenty of these small gray squirrels too. They have very white undersides, and when they're sitting up it's distinctive.
What's that in the hot tub? Why, it's just Wiley. Nothing to worry about. He's missing a lot of his teeth, so it's no big deal.
There we are, waaayyyy down there. We can still hear the freeway, but we've really got to listen hard. Notice that everyone's parked on the grass; that's the way it is on this tough Florida turf--parking on it does no harm, it bounces right back. Wonderful stuff! And there's another example of Charlie's wrath from last year; there's lots of evidence of that hurricane in this area. We were looking for the Farmers Market, but it wasn't active yet. Must not be enough snowbirds down here yet.
Maybe this will give them some incentive to come down, eh? We just got off the phone with Barb's sister Carol and her husband Guy. We had the last laugh. After we assured ourselves the horrible rain and flooding in NH hasn't caused them anything but inconvenience. Is this a great life or what?????????
A reader asked about the new maps. They're created with Microsoft Streets and Trips, and then just copied onto the page here. I'm using Microsoft FrontPage 2003 to build this site, and it's dirt simple. If it was complicated I wouldn't have the patience to learn it, I'm sure. Made some changes to the maps today, and hope they're a little less crowded. Still not real happy with them, but one step at a time, eh?
Another reader suggested I use a chart for the fuel information, and I'll do that sometime as well. I sure do appreciate the questions, suggestions, and help from those of you who take the time to write. THANKS!!